MAZEPPA.
35
“The drooping courser, faint and low,
“All feebly foaming went.
“A sickly infant had had power
“To guide him forward in that hour;630
“But useless all to me.
“His new-born tameness nought avail’d,
“My limbs were bound; my force had fail’d,
“Perchance, had they been free.
“With feeble effort still I tried
“To rend the bonds so starkly tied—
“But still it was in vain;
“My limbs were only wrung the more,
“And soon the idle strife gave o’er,
“Which but prolong’d their pain:640
“The dizzy race seem’d almost done,
“Although no goal was nearly won:
“Some streaks announced the coming sun—
“How slow, alas! he came!
“Methought that mist of dawning gray
“Would never dapple into day;
“How heavily it roll’d away—
d 2
